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 eMC (Masta Ace, Wordsworth, Punchline & Stricklin)

First off, can each member introduce themselves briefly?

Punchline: This is Punchline. What's up?

Masta Ace: This is Masta Ace calling from New Jersey.

Wordsworth: What's up this is Wordsworth.

Stricklin: Yeah this is Stricklin in Milwaukee. What's up?

How did the idea of forming a group actually come together?

Masta Ace: It really came from the fans. These guys had started touring with me back in 2001 when I dropped Disposable Arts. We have spent a lot of time together within the last 4-5 years. These guys would go on trips and perform with me and they've also been on a lot of songs on my last couple of albums. So the fans on the websites and chats rooms started talking about the idea of us becoming a group. It was a rumor at first. After hearing the rumor so much we decided to experiment and do a song to see how it sounded. We liked the way it sounded and we liked the idea of doing it. It sounded like a fun thing to do. We ended up deciding to branch out and do a whole album.

Who came up with the name eMC?

Masta Ace: The eMC name actually wasn't the first original name. We were just trying to come up with a name that sounded cool. Something catchy and could have more than one meaning to it. The first name we came up with we found out another group had, so we switched it up and eMC became the new name.

What do you think you each of you bring to the table?

Stricklin: I bring a different outlook. All these guys are from New York and I'm from Milwaukee. I add little midwest slang to the mix. I come from a different angle, with a little wittiness and a little humor to my rhymes.

Punchline: I just bring that "nigga" element. I come from the street and I bring that in.

Masta Ace: I think the most important thing I bring is experience from the amount of time I've been in the game. I try to share my experiences.

Your album The Show includes a story/concept; can you explain that for us?

Stricklin: The album is called the show. We just wanted to bring the fans into our daily lives when we are on the road. That's basically it in a nutshell. Everything you hear on there has some kind of history behind it. We talk about being at the merch table or being picked up late at the airport. The clip from the "momma song" is an actual clip from one of my shows in Denmark somewhere. The album is made for the fans and anyone interested in what goes on with eMC at a daily show. We just wanted to bring you into our worlds for one day and then give you some good music to go along with it.

Masta Ace has done the conceptual album thing in the past; did you play a big role in executing it on The Show?

Masta Ace:  Yeah I think they kind of followed my lead a little bit. I kind of had an idea conceptually of what I wanted to do and they gave me the green light to go forward and develop that story. I developed it to a certain point and it took shape from there. Everyone had their input on what else to do and where to go with it. I think it turned out pretty cool.

When you guys are in the studio did anyone take a leadership role or was it just everyone tossing ideas around?

Punchline:  Ace took the majority of the lead and we threw our bits here and there. Ace has the major bulk of the songs so it falls on him.

Wordsworth: I would also say we shared a lot. When it was time to get the album done we were e-mailing each other beats, vocals, concepts and things of that nature back and forth. Not many people can take that initiative and can assert themselves to do something like that and get it done.

Is it tough to record a cohesive album when you have four different personalities?

Stricklin: You'd think it would be but we're so similar in the things that we like. Whether it's the type of rhymes we listen to or what we enjoy. We are pretty much on the same page. It didn't come as hard as you would think with us. We've been around each other for so long that we're like family. We'll have our little differences here and there but if three people like the idea we go with the majority. Everybody is not on every song. If one person doesn't feel strongly about a particular beat he doesn't have to get on that song. It wasn't hard at all to get it done.

Does being around three other talented artists motivate each of you to go your hardest?

Wordsworth: I would definitely have to say yes. It's the same as competition as far as hearing somebody's verse and you get inspired and they say your verse is just as tight. There would be times that a song might have a verse on there maybe done by Strick, Punch or Ace and I would hear it and make sure I would keep that same base and standard. Each song that one of us wanted to stand by we made sure we kept the same standard and were up to par with the lyrics.

Who are some of the producers and guests on the record?

Wordsworth: We have Sean Price, Little Brother, Ladybug Mecca, ADI a singer out of Milwaukee from a group called Growing Nation and Money Harm originally from Product G & B. Producer wise we have Ayatollah, Frequency, Koolade from Croatia, Marco Polo from Canada and Quincy Tones is from the UK. It's mostly internationally produced. It reaches everybody production wise.

Stricklin: We have Nicolay from the Netherlands in there and The Are who is from Houston.

The album is actually dropping digitally a month before the CD, is that because of the early leaking?

Masta Ace: That's definitely why. The album leaked a little earlier than we expected so we didn't have any choice. When you get lemons you make lemonade so that's what we did. We thought it was a better idea to put it out digitally a month earlier At least we'll get some sales before the March 25th date comes.

Is it frustrating when your music leaks so early?

Wordsworth: Once you see the responses it kind of helps you endure what's going on. Even though it has leaked, seeing the responses was kind of like a relief in itself. A lot of people loved it. To see the fans love it, plus get excited about it and saying they are still going to buy it when it comes out regardless - that keeps you believing that even though the download happened it was a good thing. It was great promotion too at the same time. There are a lot of people nowadays that won't buy an album unless they hear it first. It's both a gift and a curse when you're dealing with that.

You've guys been doing a lot of touring before the album has even dropped. How have the fans been reacting to the material?

Stricklin: It's been great. In Europe the fans are incredible and show appreciation for the music like ten times more than people in the states do. I'm not saying the fans in the states don't appreciate the music, they just don't want to show it as much. When you go to Europe or some of these other countries they don't get these live shows as much. When we go over there they want to show you how much they appreciate it. A lot of our success on the road definitely stems from Masta Ace being the foundation. People aren't afraid to come to an eMC show because they know they are going to see Masta Ace and they know they are going to see Wordsworth. The eMC thing is beautiful in that way because we all feed off of each other. The fans know they are going to get a good show. I don't know of another new group that can go out and tour like we've done over the past year and a half, if not for the foundation built by Masta Ace.

Since you guys got close on tour in the first place, did the tour atmosphere and closeness influence the music and the way you approached the album? Would you say you recorded music based on knowing what fans like to hear at live shows?

Masta Ace: That's a good question. We may not always know. When it comes to a new record you don't always know what people are going to like. You play it by ear a little bit and when you first start out. These next few shows we are going to be doing will give us a better feel of what people like most in terms of songs. You kind of learn to carry your show as you go along based on the reaction you get from certain records. Going in you really don't know. You kind of do the songs you feel are going to work better live but sometimes we just do the songs we want to hear. There are a lot of records we've been holding back on performing for obvious reasons. Now that the album is completely done we are excited to perform every record on the album if we can.

Do you guys have any crazy tour stories that you can share?

Punchline: I'll take this one, Ne getting arrested in Germany. I got into some altercations with some police officers, got detained and released.

[Laughs] We'll leave it at that then.

Punchline: [Laughs]

What are your tour plans in the future?

Stricklin: We have a European tour planned for mid May to early June. We're probably going to do a couple spot dates in the states. We actually just came back from a little west coast run. We touched Colorado, California and Utah. We'll definitely be hitting Europe in May-June. Hopefully after that we can put something together for maybe Canada or back in the States for the summer months.

Masta Ace: Just to add to that, we have release parties planned in Philadelphia on March 20th, New York on March 25th and in Boston on March 26th.

At an eMC show do you strictly perform the group's material or do you guys do your older stuff as well?

Masta Ace: It's a combination of the old and the new. As the eMC album becomes popular and more people become familiar with the album, we are going to cut back on some of the individual songs. I'll probably be the one to cut back on individual songs to make room for more of the group songs. That's really what you want. You can't be out there for three hours so you have to cut something to add something. As we move forward and put this show together and develop it over the next year, you're going to see its gravitation pull away from it feeling like a Masta Ace show to it feeling more of what it should feel like - an eMC show .

You already put out a video, are you going to release any more soon?

Masta Ace: Yeah it's still up in the air but we are going to do two more videos.

After eMC drops what else are each of you working on in 2008?

Punchline: Individually? Right now I'm working on my solo album so hopefully it will be out by next year.

Stricklin: I'll have a solo album definitely. Trying to stay busy and get on as many features as I can. Keep my voice out there and keep people interested. Hopefully people will hear the eMC album and we can piggyback off that and the excitement of how.

Wordsworth: I would say a solo album and there's another album out called Baby Loves Hip Hop I did with Chali 2na, Ladybug Mecca, Scratch from the roots and it's produced by Prince Paul. That will be out in April.

Masta Ace:  After the eMC album look for a collaboration album with myself and Edo G. We formed a group called A&E. That'll be coming out later this year, maybe early next year. It depends.

Anything else you guys want to add?

Masta Ace: People can visit us on myspace at myspace/emcthegroup. We'll have some new music up there to grab and look out for some videos real soon. We'll be featuring those on the myspace page as well. Just to repeat the release dates if we didn't. Feburay 26th is the Itunes release date and March 25th is the CD in stores.


Drew & Andy